Adequate Tent Ventilation

Question:

Tents have warnings to “maintain adequate ventilation. Death by suffocation is possible!” My tent has lots of mesh. What’s the story here?

Submitted by – Kyle – Dallas, TX

Answer:

Don’t worry Kyle, you’re not in danger of a random midnight suffocation. The vague warning on your tent should read: “maintain adequate ventilation while cooking.” If a storm forces you to cook inside your tent and you fail to ventilate properly, carbon monoxide can build up and you could fall asleep forever. But that’s easily avoidable. When weather has forced me inside, I just cook in the vestibule–even when the vesti door is fully zipped, there’s plenty of air circulation coming up under the edge of the fly to carry off harmful fumes.